Unclassifiably original band merges East and West in dance grooves galore

By Mel Minter

When you slide Heimlich, the latest CD from 17 Hippies, into the computer, the disc obligingly gives up the expected data: album name, track titles, artist, etc. It’s all pretty straightforward until you get to “genre.”

It's a shame this record comes out just after the State Fair leaves town. It would be the perfect midway soundtrack. Furr is a little intimidating at first, what with its bright lights, piles of sounds and entirely too many options. But soon enough, the album finds a psychedelic-folk game it likes and wins the teddy bear. Blitzen Trapper's piano, Rhodes organ, driving guitar and multilayered, chirpy vocals are juiced up and rarin' to go. Bob Dylan is clearly in the band's collective consciousness, but Blitzen Trapper is more succinct and electronically inclined than its forefather. Partially sunbaked but also poignant at times, Furr seeks uncharted territory without getting lost along the way. (SM)

Stop Making Sense • Tony O and the Greatest Band Ever • rock

By August March

Multiple Best of Burque Music award-winner Tony Orant—one of the giant disembodied brains in impenetrable perspex that is responsible for projects like Pink Freud—is driving his mad musical time machine to the '80s to grok a phenomenon called Talking Heads. The skulls of those four East Coast art school rockers had much influence on music and culture that followed numbly in their wake; just ask Thom Yorke. Anyway, Tony O and the Greatest Band Ever wants to tell you all about that

Heiroglyphics • hip-hop

By August March

Hieroglyphics is on tour this summer because 20 years ago, 3rd Eye Vision was released. As you may recall, this album was one of the most important hip-hop recordings to appear near the end of the 20th century. It had folks like Del the Funky Homosapien wrangling a crew that boasted A-Plus, Opio and Domino